Bengals’ Tee Higgins ready to play, all smiles after 3 weeks out

CINCINNATI — Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins flashed a big smile at his locker before the team left for Los Angeles.

After three weeks out with a quadriceps injury, Higgins is expected to play Sunday against the Chargers, coach Zac Taylor said after Friday’s practice.

And no one is looking forward to it more than Higgins.

“I’m very excited (to) get back out there with the guys,” Higgins told ESPN in his first interview since suffering the injury. “Just sitting and watching it, I hate it, you know what I’m saying? Not being able to contribute to help win, it stinks. So I’m very excited to go out there and fight.”

Higgins has been a limited participant in training this week but does not have an injury designation for Sunday’s game. During the portion of Friday’s practice open to the media, Higgins was in uniform and wearing a helmet, but did agility and conditioning drills.

“Everything you saw in practice with him doing rehab, doing individual things, it was everything we had coordinated all week to make sure he was in a great spot,” Taylor said. “And right now we’re in a great place.”

Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson is also expected to play Sunday despite missing practice Friday. Hendrickson, who leads the NFL with 11 sacks this season, will travel separately to Los Angeles on Saturday for personal reasons.

Higgins suffered his injury in practice on Oct. 25, two days before the Bengals’ loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. The injury continued to linger for the next few weeks, he said.

“I still felt it,” Higgins said. “But it felt great this week and I’m ready to go.”

The fifth-year wide receiver has had to battle soft tissue injuries throughout his career. This season, he suffered a hamstring injury days before Week 1 and missed the first two games. He also missed four games in 2023 with a hamstring injury.

Higgins indicated that he has made consultations to prevent these injuries from happening in the future.

“I thought I handled it the right way and then this keeps happening,” Higgins told ESPN. “So I had to call people and see what I need to do better or more of. I feel like I’m on the right track right now.”

Before suffering the quadriceps injury, Higgins was praised by coaches and teammates for performing at the highest level of his career. Higgins, who plays on the franchise tag, averaged 80.7 yards per game in the three contests prior to the injury and played a key role in back-to-back wins over the New York Giants and Cleveland Browns.

Taylor said that despite the long absence, the team feels confident Higgins can handle a significant workload in a game Cincinnati (4-6) knows it must win to bolster its playoff push.

Higgins said the hardest part about not playing has been the losses Cincinnati has suffered in his absence. The Bengals dropped two of the three games he missed.

Before the team left for Los Angeles on Friday afternoon, Higgins told ESPN that he hopes the best for him this year is yet to come.

“Hopefully all the injury stuff is behind me, I’m fit for the rest of the season and we can try and make the run that we think we can do,” Higgins said.

In other injury news, Bengals offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr. questionable with a lower leg injury. Linebacker Logan Wilson (quadriceps) and defensive tackle BJ Hill (knee, questionable) are both expected to play against the Chargers.